Chiwere Popular Orthography

[Rankin, Robert L]

> I might add as a final note that though Baxoje seems to be
> fairly clearly
> interpretable as 'gray snow' there's a possibility that
> something else is
> involved.  The name might have been modified to support a
> folk etymology,
> or might simply have some other meaning currently obscure.

I guess I've tended myself to take nearly all these "transparent" ethnonyms
as mostly folk etymologies, but John's right. It may just have some
anecdotal historical reference lost in time.

> it gives one pause to learn that the Quapaw (in the larger
> sense) included a village called ImaNhaN 'downstream'.

'Upstream' actually, as John no doubt noticed as he was pressing the "send"
button.  It was "up" the tributary from the main 4 villages that were near
the junction with the Mississippi.

I was talking about some of these ethnonyms with an archaeologist at Wichita
State U. last week and he felt that the Pa- in Pani, Paxoje and Padouca
ought to be a morpheme. I don't know that I agree, but it's true that all
may be borrowings.

Bob